John Warren Moutoussamy (1922-1995)

John Warren Moutoussamy (1922-1995) was born in Chicago and studied at Tilden Technical and Englewood High Schools.  After serving in World War II, he studied architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology under Mies van der Rohe and graduated in 1948.  Moutoussamy worked for several Chicago architectural firms, including Schmidt, Garden and Erickson and PACE Associates.

In 1956, Moutoussamy began his own practice after receiving a commission to design Lawless Gardens, a large-scale, urban renewal housing project.  Banks declined to finance the project because Moutoussamy was black, but agreed to compromise if he would team with a more experienced firm.  Moutoussamy teamed with Dubin, Dubin and Black, a firm notable for the modernist houses it had designed on Chicago’s North Shore.  After he joined the firm, Moutoussamy initially was the lead designer for Lawless Gardens, but later was asked to join the firm as a partner, the first African American to attain partner at a large Chicago architecture firm. Over the next thirty-odd years, Moutoussamy designed a number of buildings with Dubin, Dubin, Black and Moutoussamy.  His best-known work is the 11-story Johnson Publishing Company Building at 820 S. Michigan Avenue, home to Ebony and Jet magazines and The building is the only high-rise in downtown Chicago designed by an African American architect.